New Mexico Supreme Court fines lawyer for AI-generated brief with fabricated testimony

A New Mexico Supreme Court panel on Wednesday sanctioned defense attorney Stephen Aarons after finding that a brief he filed in a murder‑conviction appeal contained fabricated police testimony and fictitious witnesses. The court determined that the false material originated from an effort by Aarons to generate a “bulletproof summary” using the artificial‑intelligence tool ChatGPT, and that he failed to verify the accuracy of the content before submitting it to the court. In its ruling, the court imposed a monetary fine on Aarons and held him in contempt for the misconduct, emphasizing the attorney’s duty to ensure the reliability of any evidence presented in judicial proceedings.

Aarons acknowledged that he had relied on the AI application to draft portions of the brief, but he did not independently confirm the veracity of the generated statements. The decision underscores the judiciary’s growing scrutiny of AI‑generated content in legal filings and serves as a warning to practitioners about the necessity of rigorous fact‑checking when employing such technology. The sanction reinforces the principle that attorneys remain accountable for the authenticity of all material submitted to the court, regardless of the tools used to produce it.